Enlightenment
At last, museums reach self-reflexivity intelligently. Somewhere in the mid 90's museologists were talking a lot about the end of modern museums and their inherent cultural imperialism. Just about anyone who was hip (despite being called a "museologist") said it was time to return to the original museums (cabinets of curiosity). No more could museums afford to pretend to be objective, pseudo-scientific institutions. One had to recognize that museums are collections made by individuals, collections that ought to be criticized as much as praised. But then Bilbao hit, and museum people couldn't think of anything else. Yay for architecture, Boo for museums.
So it is, I think, a promising sign that the British Museum's new Enlightenment Gallery showcases itself as an artifact of old-fashioned museum-ing.
Enlightenment dawns: the British Museum opens a museum of itselfAn overt exercise in double coding is going on. The display in the gallery is all about the way collectors discovered and categorized the world in the 18th century. National museums across London have been ransacked, across all their public and reserve collections, to provide the material. But obviously this is more than just an exhibition about the historic period of cultural inquiry known as the Enlightenment. This is the museum examining its own origins. Accordingly it sets out to present the material much as you or I might have found it, had we wandered in one wet Tuesday towards 1830. This is all about old wooden floors and painted plasterwork and gilded railings and, above all, glass cases. You will not find computer terminals or giant plasma screens or kiddies' lift-the-flap interactive quizzes. You won't even find much in the way of labelling. The result is that the British Museum now contains a museum of itself, and for a very good reason: the BM is itself one of the great products of the Enlightenment. It deserves to be displayed.
I think it's kinda funny, too, that this gallery's self-awareness in a way criticizes Bilbao and all the other ducks for being small-minded products of their age. I would much rather museums go the way the
Dia wants them to go (renovated warehouses). But perhaps that's another discussion.
* Ray, 12/17/2003 11:38:44 AM
